Shiki Theatrical Company Musical: Li Xianglan (Ri Koran)

This page will eventually contain more information about the Shiki Theater musical production Ri Koran Musical based on Li Xianglan's life in China. The book of the play was written by Keita Asari, the founder of Shiki Theater in 1953, who was born in 1933 and passed away in 2018. He wrote a trilogy of plays: Ri Koran, Foreign Hills, and Southern Cross, all concerned with Japan's war-time history and the subject of militarism. Here they are from top to bottom, Ri Koran, Foreign Hills, and Southern Cross:

Southern Cross (set in Indonesia) contains a love-story between a Japanese soldier and an Indonesian woman. Foreign Hills is concerned with the tens of thousands of Imperial Japan Army troops interned inside USSR internment camps after the 1945 collapse of Manchuria. 

Here is a good introduction to the trilogy, by former BBC Tokyo correspondent David Powers:


Here is the Synopsis of the Ri Koran play as it was published in one of the keepsake  programs:


here is perhaps a more readable Synopsis:

x--x--x--x--x

The program books (and there are many published) themselves are remarkable, having none of the tawdry ads one usually finds in such books, and for the amount of history about the war years presented in it's pages (which I intend to eventually post for your information). Also, of course, are the many full-page photos of key action-scenes of the play and descriptions of the various scenes/actors/historical personas (such as Puyi) in the play. 






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